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| Advanced Microsoft Excel 2007 |
Any proficient
Microsoft Excel user will agree that
MS Excel is a very powerful
analytical tool. Wouldn't it be
great to learn how to effectively
use all the advanced Excel features
at your disposal? In this practical
and information-packed course,
you'll see how to maximize Excel's
functions and capabilities.
Most organizations rely heavily on
Microsoft Excel to consolidate,
analyze, and report financial
information. Your company is
probably no exception. By learning
these advanced techniques, you can
become more valuable to your
organization. Your ability to
generate information with increased
accuracy, timeliness, and usefulness
will lead you and others to better
decision-making.
Over the next six weeks, you'll see
how to use the additional analytical
tools provided by Excel add-ins.
You'll become skilled in the use of
validation to protect the integrity
of your worksheets from other, less
experienced users. You'll impress
your coworkers by learning how to
add functional and eye-catching
controls to any worksheet and how to
use scenarios and data tables to
quickly perform multiple what-if
analyses. You'll discover advanced
techniques for PivotTables, such as
creating calculated fields and
calculated items. You'll become
adept at consolidating and importing
data from other sources, and you'll
master the art of conditional
formatting to highlight duplicate
entries and other common worksheet
problems. Learn how Excel 2007 table
tools take the complexity out of
table creation and management. As
you become proficient at nesting
functions within other functions,
you'll be able to accomplish just
about anything Microsoft Excel has
to offer!
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Please
click here to take this course through an accredited
college or university in your community.
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Syllabus:
A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of
two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each
course at least two months apart.
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end.
Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the
course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You
will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the
interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will
automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we
strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its
release.
The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once
the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete
all of your course work, including the final exam.
Week One
Wednesday - Lesson 01
Over the next six weeks, we're going to explore Microsoft Excel 2007's
new and advanced features. You'll learn how to use data analysis tools
and techniques to improve your decision making, and you'll practice
generating accurate data more quickly. By the end of this course, you'll
be well prepared to contribute more value to your organization with your
advanced understanding of Excel. To kick things off, we'll spend this
first lesson exploring how you can modify Excel to streamline processes
and make your work easier. You'll use the Excel Options dialog box to
customize some of Excel's behind-the-scenes behavior, set up your Quick
Access Toolbar, and take a look at the new and improved status bar and
its customizable features. Mastering these processes will lay the
foundation for our exploration of advanced topics throughout the course.
Friday - Lesson 02
Today we'll explore the new table management features in Excel 2007,
discuss how to use data forms with Excel databases, and look at a few
alternative database techniques. You'll be glad to know that formatting
and working with tables has gotten much easier in this latest version of
Excel. Now, instead of applying filters, total rows, and formats
separately, you can perform these actions through a single user
interface. We'll delve into how it's done. You'll also learn how data
forms provide a more user-friendly method for adding, deleting, and
editing records in a table, and you'll practice using a data form to
search for and view records that match specific criteria. We'll wrap
things up with a brief look at some of the practical applications for
data forms.
Week Two
Wednesday - Lesson 03
In this lesson, we'll tackle data validation techniques—your first line
of defense against incorrect or missing data and the logical next step
after data forms. You'll practice using whole number, decimal, date,
time, list, and other forms of validation. After that, we'll explore the
possibilities of custom validation, which allows you to apply validation
on a cell or range of cells based on a formula you create. The
possibilities for using it are limitless! You'll also learn how to
create input messages and error alerts to guide the user's data entry,
how to keep track of validation rules, and how to apply a custom
validation rule to other cells so you don't have to create it all over
again.
Friday - Lesson 04
In the first three lessons, we covered what you might call intro-level
advanced Excel topics, and now it's time to head into more complex
territory. So, today, let's start working with custom controls—graphical
objects that help facilitate data input and are sure to impress users.
We'll start by getting your Ribbon set up to work with custom controls,
and then we'll walk through some practice exercises. You'll learn how to
create standard and drop-down list boxes, check boxes, option buttons,
and group boxes. You'll also master the process of creating a dynamic
list box, which allows you to control the values in one list box based
on the values chosen by your user in a separate custom control.
Week Three
Wednesday - Lesson 05
Today you'll discover how to use conditional formatting. And I'm not
just talking about creating validation based on cell values. We'll do a
quick review of that process, just as a refresher, but after that we're
going to focus on formula conditional formatting. We'll work through
nine different practice exercises that explore row conditional
formatting, and we'll briefly discuss how the formula works after each
exercise. You'll see how to use conditional formatting to hide errors,
to highlight records based on multiple criteria, to track and alert you
about due dates, to find the differences between two lists, to shade
every other row (my personal favorite), and more. I think you'll
especially enjoy learning how to set up a scorecard, which will show you
problem areas in red, possible problems in yellow, and everything
running smoothly in green. (Your manager will love this.)
Friday - Lesson 06
In this lesson, you'll learn how to use Excel's consolidation function
to efficiently summarize data from multiple sources. A lot of people do
this the hard way, but with Excel's automatic consolidation feature,
you'll no longer need to develop a web of formula links to multiple
sources. Good-bye, potential for human error! We'll begin with an
exercise on consolidating data within the same workbook, and after that,
you'll practice consolidating using an advanced technique with category
labels and wildcards. Next, we'll step things up with a practice
exercise on consolidating from multiple workbooks. You'll also learn how
to use automatic and manual outlining to view or hide different levels
or sections of your information.
Week Four
Wednesday - Lesson 07
Excel's functions (or predefined calculations) are too numerous to
completely cover in one lesson, so today we'll just focus on a few
important ones spanning four categories: Logical, Database, Math & Trig,
and Lookup & Reference. We'll start today with an overview of functions,
take a look at the Insert Function dialog box, and then practice working
with the IF function, nesting functions, the DSUM function, and the
VLOOKUP function—all of which will come in handy when you need to
perform a quick, thorough analysis of your data. You'll also set up and
use the Conditional Sum Wizard.
Friday - Lesson 08
In this lesson, you'll find out all about importing external data. We'll
begin with a practice exercise to get you comfortable with importing
data from another Excel file, during which you'll see how to use the
Microsoft Query Wizard. You'll test two methods for refreshing the
target area for the imported data and find out how to edit an Excel
query. After that, you'll do an import from an external database.
Finally, you'll learn how to perform a Web query, which—you guessed
it—allows you to import data from the Internet. The Web query feature is
another new feature in Excel 2007.
Week Five
Wednesday - Lesson 09
It's time to look at data tables, which let you compare the outcomes of
different versions of the same formula without slogging through the
process of calculating each of them. Data tables are very powerful
what-if analysis tools that are great for analyzing potential outcomes
of personal or business financial decisions. In this lesson, you'll
learn how to use two types of data tables: a one-variable data table
(which lets you substitute just one variable into the formula
calculation) and the two-variable data table (which allows you to change
multiple aspects of the formula).
Friday - Lesson 10
Today we'll explore three more of Excel's what-if analysis tools: Goal
Seek, Scenario Manager, and Solver. You'll find out how to use Goal Seek
to solve formulas backward—for example, you might want to do this if you
knew the result you wanted but needed to determine how to change a
single input cell in order to get that desired result. After that, we'll
practice using Scenario Manager to create and save different input
values and their results as scenarios (great for working on budgets).
And finally, you'll put Excel's Solver to work to discover the optimal
solution to models that have multiple variables and constraints.
Week Six
Wednesday - Lesson 11
In this lesson, you'll discover how to use PivotTables, which are
excellent for summarizing massive amounts of data and viewing different
cuts of the information quickly. There are two methods for creating
PivotTables, and you'll practice using both. You'll also learn how to
edit a PivotTable, how to filter the table to create individual reports,
how to format a PivotTable to make it reader-friendly, and how to use
calculated fields and items. After this, you'll create a PivotChart
based on the data fields in your PivotTable. We may not be quite done
with the course, but after mastering PivotTables and PivotCharts, you'll
certainly be able to count yourself an advanced Excel user.
Friday - Lesson 12
We'll begin our final lesson with a look at the functions available in
the Analysis ToolPak, including two of my favorites: the Moving Average
and Sampling tools. You'll complete an exercise using advanced filters,
and then I'll show you some of my favorite Excel tips and tricks. You'll
find out how to work with the View Side by Side tool and how to use the
Watch Window to keep tabs on your data when you're updating a workbook.
We'll wrap things up with practice exercises using array formulas and
the AutoSum Tool. When you're done with this lesson—and the
course—you'll want to pass along the techniques you've learned to
friends and colleagues who are still be wrestling with Excel!
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Please
click here to take this course through an accredited
college or university in your community.
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